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Chapter 15 - Communicating
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3. Think back to discussions you have heard or participated in. Consider the differences between
one-way and two-way communication. How can two one-ways be turned into a true two-way?
Two one way discussions are people talking at each other, but not listening and responding to the points
4. Share with the class some of your experiences—both good and bad—with electronic media.
Electronic media can involve written communications (e-mail and fax machines) and verbal
communications (teleconferencing and videoconferencing). The advantages are generally that of speed
and efficiency in delivering messages to a large number of people across vast geographic areas. They lead
5. Report examples of “mixed signals” you have received (or sent). How can you reduce the poten-
tial for misunderstanding and misperception as you communicate with others?
Many students will be able to provide examples—both from their business experiences and personal lives
– of situations in which they either received mixed signals or were guilty of sending them.
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6. What makes you want to say to someone, “You’re not listening!”?
This phrase can be used in a number of situations if the other person doesn’t respond at all to your
question or statement or if his or her comment bears absolutely no relationship to your previous state-
7. What do you think about the practice of “open-book management”? What would you think
about it if you were running your own company?
Open-book management is the concept of allowing all personnel within a company to have access to any
information…especially financial information. In its ultimate form, employees are taught to understand
Furthermore, providing employees with unlimited information on the company’s financial situation and
plans may well lead to employee dissatisfaction over compensation, career opportunities, etc. The firm
may decide that it has had a very good year and thus can afford to invest in new equipment, the hiring of a
consultant, etc. The employees, by contrast, might prefer that the profitability be reflected in their com-
pensation. Similarly, knowing that the company is going to discontinue a specific business may make
those individuals in that business area very dissatisfied.
8. Discuss organizational rumors you have heard: what they were about, how they got started,
how accurate they were, and how people reacted to them. What lessons can you learn from
these episodes?
Rumors can deal with actions, events, and people and may range from being totally accurate to complete
fabrications. They can be started by people reading or hearing a piece of information that they then pass
Chapter 15 - Communicating
9. Refer to the section on “The Virtual Office”. What do you think will be the long-term impact of
the mobile office on job satisfaction and performance? If you were a manager, how would you
maximize the benefits and minimize the drawbacks? If you worked in this environment, how
would you manage yourself to maximize your performance and avoid burnout?
Different people will probably react differently. Some will enjoy the opportunity of working out of their
homes and on the road and will perform at the same or even higher level. These will be those individuals
who like the flexibility of working alone, do not rely on a group environment, and are personally well
organized.
By contrast, other people will find it an extremely unsatisfying environment. They will miss the struc-
10. Have you ever made or seen mistakes due to people not speaking a common language well?
How do you or will you deal with others who do not speak the same language as you?
Cross-cultural communication poses additional challenges in the workplace. A number of strategies can
be employed; however, to ease communication between coworkers who do not share a common first lan-
guage:
1. When there is silence, wait. Do not jump in to fill the silence. The other person is probably just think-
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11. Have you ever tried to coach someone? What did you do well, and what mistakes did you
make? How can you become a better coach?
Students are likely to report a variety of experiences where they attempted to coach someone. Examples
might include professional relationships where they were in a supervisory position, sports teams, or even
12. Have you ever been coached by someone? What did he or she do well, and what mistakes were
made? How was it for you to be on the receiving end of the coaching, and how did you re-
spond? What is required to be successful as the “receiver” of someone else’s coaching at-
tempts?
Many students are more likely to have been in the role of coachee rather than coach. Their experienc-
es with being on the receiving end of coaching are likely to vary based on the quality of the coaching
13. Think about how companies communicate with Wall Street and the media, and how analysts on
TV communicate with viewers. What concepts from the chapter apply, and how can you be-
come a more astute "consumer" of such information.
Companies communicate with Wall Street by a formal means of press releases and special requirements
that are set forth by the Security Exchange Commission. Formal communication must be created to gen-
Chapter 15 - Communicating
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EXPERIENTIAL EXERCISE 15.1 – INTERPRETING NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION
Objectives
To become more skilled at interpreting nonverbal communication.
Instructions
Assume your boss exhibits each of the five behaviors listed below over the course of a month. Read each
behavior and then record your interpretation of what it means.
Nonverbal Communication Interpretation Worksheet
Your boss…
You interpret this behavior to mean…
Arrives to the office earlier
than usual and has a worried
look on her face.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
Focuses her eyes and atten-
tion only on you when you are
speaking with her.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
Source: Adapted from Laurence R. Jauch, Arthur G. Bedian, Sally A. Coltin, and William F. Glueck, The
EXERCISE 15.2 - LISTENING SKILLS SURVEY
EXPERIENTIAL EXERCISES
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Objectives
1. To measure your skills as a listener.
Suggested responses
Student responses will vary.
1.
I tend to be patient with the speaker, making sure she or he
is finished speaking before I respond in any fashion.
5
2.
When listening I don’t doodle or fiddle with papers and
things that might distract me from the speaker.
5
8.
I never talk when the other person is trying to say some-
thing.
4
9.
During a conversation, a period of silence seems awkward
to me.
4
10.
I want people to just give me the facts and allow me to
make up my own mind.
5
11.
When the speaker is finished, I respond to his or her feel-
ings
4
12.
I don’t evaluate the speaker’s words until she or he is fin-
ished talking.
3
13.
I formulate my response while the speaker is still talking.
1
14.
I never pretend that I’m listening when I’m not.
4
Suggested Responses to Discussion Questions
1. In what ways did student’s responses on the survey agree or disagree?
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Student responses will vary and therefore may they may agree or disagree with various statements de-
2. What do you think accounts for the differences?
3. How can the results of this survey be put to practical uses?
Teaching Tips
1. This survey can provoke some negative feelings and defensive reactions on the part of some students.
Poor listeners may be especially irritated by the survey questions and the issues they provoke. The in-
EXERCISE 15.3 - ACTIVE LISTENING
Purpose: To practice techniques for effective listening
Time: 30-50 min.
Resources/Set-up: Need groups of three, copy of the observation rating form (in chapter), list of potential
topics to be used (see chapter)
Activity Instructions: See chapter
Discussion/Debrief: See questions in the text. Some points worth emphasizing relative to these questions
include:
1. Behaviors that lead to effective communication and problem resolution.
2. The list of hindering factors should reinforce barriers to effective listening.
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Best Trust Bank
Case Summary:
Best Trust Bank has grown to become one of the world’s top 25 banks with 73,000 employees in 47
countries. The company has built a reputation based on integrity and Paul Wysinsky, Vice President for
Chapter Topics Related to the Case:
• Discuss the concept of communication
• Identify the importance of having effective communication skills
Case Discussion Questions:
1. How has the media richness of Paul’s communications changed since the days he was a teller?
Suggested Response:
Suggested responses may identify such factors as greater dependence on the internet and less face-to-face
2. What sender and receiver skills are described in this case? Which ones needs improvement? Offer
one suggestion for improving the weak skills.
Suggested Response:
Suggested responses to this question may include information such as the following. The middle manag-
ers tend to use memos, reports, and email to communicate problems and issues. Often Paul cannot figure
CONCLUDING CASE
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3. How might Paul improve upward communication and the communication culture more generally at
Best Trust?
Suggested Response:
People send and interpret signals other than those that are spoken or written. Nonverbal messages can
Additional Discussion Questions:
1. As the case study indicates, there appears to be a lack of clear communication occurring between the
middle managers and top management. The company’s future growth and development depends on
clear upward communication to identify and resolve issues as they occur. Identify the advantages
achieved from using an effective two-way communication process versus only a one-way process.
Suggested Response:
One-way communication flows from the sender to the receiver with no feedback loop. One-way commu-
2. These managers to be handling its communication process ineffectively or at least not as well as some
others do. Identify communication problems that should be avoided by individuals engaging in the
communication process.
Suggested Response:
Problems in the communication process can occur at any or all of the stages such as encoding, transmis-
Chapter 15 - Communicating
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Leading and Motivating When Disaster Strikes: Magna Exteriors and Interiors
1. As a leader, what vision did Robert Brownlee offer? What combination of task performance and
group maintenance behaviors did he use? Was this the appropriate combination after the fire? Why
or why not?
Brownlee’s vision was that Magna would continue to serve its customers and quickly restart opera-
tions at the Howell plant. The emphasis was on task performance. In Fiedler’s model (assuming good
2. What do you think the Magna managers and employees were motivated by most after the fire? Why?
Answers will vary. Chapter 13 suggests several possibilities that give students a chance to think be-
yond extrinsic motivation; the crisis called upon workers to be intrinsically motivated, as the compa-
3. Management set up a cross-functional reconstruction team, but there is no evidence that this was a
self-managed team. Would a self-managed team have been more effective? Why or why not?
PART IV SUPPORTING CASE
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Example 15.1 – Sending and receiving: Ask the class to draw a picture of a flower. Don’t give
any instruction except “Draw a flower,” even if the class pressures you to do so. You will get
many different types of drawings - walk around the room and hand chalk to five or six people so
they can put their drawings on the chalkboard. Now show the class a picture or drawing of the
Example 15.2 – Misinterpreting messages: Albert Fernandez, a State Department official, was
interviewed on Al-Jazeera television late in 2006. In that interview, he said, in Arabic, “"History
“Fernandez told CNN he was replying to a question about how people will assess the
United States in the future, and he said he thought that was how the country would
be judged.
What went wrong in this communication process?
Example 15.3 – Electronic communications: Dan Brown, author of the bestselling novel The
Da Vinci Code, wrote an earlier book titled The Digital Fortress. On his website,
EXAMPLES
Chapter 15 - Communicating
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Example 15.4 – Open book management: Transportation companies invest millions of dollars
in the purchase and maintenance of their equipment; they may not be making the necessary in-
vestment in employees states Chuck Udell of Essential Action Design Group. To address this
Example 15.5 – Preventing rumors: Trust in management is created through day-to-day interac-
tions but if employees don’t see senior leaders on a regular basis, their perceptions of trust are
Example 15.6 – Boundaryless Organization: In their book The Boundaryless Organization,
Noel Tichy and his coauthors describe several different boundaryless organizations, including
6 Krell, Eric. “HR Magazine: Do They Trust You?” July 1, 2006
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Please see the following additional materials in Connect.
• Energizer
Energizer was founded in the late 1800’s by two inventors. Since the launch of the Energizer brand in
the late 1980’s, the Energizer Bunny has become familiar to consumers worldwide through clever ad-
vertisements and marketing campaigns. It ranks number five among the top ten advertising icons of
the 20th century.
Is marketing one-way or two-way communication? Why?
Marketing in today’s business environment must reflect two-way communication. The current cus-
Listening Skills: Yeah, Whatever
I. Introduction
Organizational Behavior and Management instructors will find this scenario useful in depicting
behaviors associated with active listening (and not listening). An analysis of the interaction will
II. Learning Objectives
1. To assess students’ understanding of the communication process.
2. To analyze and evaluate the components of active listening in a novel scenario.
III. Scenario Description:
CHAPTER VIDEO
SUPPLEMENTAL FEATURES
MANAGER’S HOT SEAT (MHS)
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Although the campaign was a huge success, the client has complained to Pilar about Miguel’s
project management skills.
Profile:
• Pilar Grimault is the Senior Account Manager at Midnight Visions, a worldwide adver-
References: The references included in the DVD are:
• The Communication Process (PPT 13-3)
Back History: At Midnight, Account managers oversee four to six accounts at any given time.
Some of Miguel’s current accounts are Jezebel, Antonioni, and HotSpot. This is the first time Mi-
guel has had three high profile accounts at the same time – a result of shifting schedules and pro-
duction slow downs.
Pilar has a lot of confidence in Miguel, but because he’s had less experience than most, watches
over him more closely. In addition to reviewing the Account reports, she has casually/subtly
Scene Set-up: Pilar and Miguel meet to discuss the Jezebel account.
Scene Location: Pilar’s Office
The Meeting - Summary: Miguel enters Pilar’s office on cloud nine because of the great work he
did for Jezebel. Pilar congratulates him but has to bring up the fact the client was not happy with
Three weeks later – Miguel is shocked that Jezebel has asked him to be removed as project
Afterthoughts – Summary: Pilar feels the first meeting was a failure because Miguel’s body lan-
guage indicated that he was distracted and not listening to her. She felt this was very unprofes-
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Dossier: The specific artifacts included in the DVD are:
IV. Discussion Questions:
The References and related Discussion Questions may be found in PowerPoint slides 13-1 to 13-10.
Learning Objective #1: To assess students’ understanding of the communication process.
1. During their initial meeting, what “noise” was present that hindered Miguel and Pilar’s ability to
communicate successfully? Refer to PPT 13-3.
Miguel was so excited about the end result of his project that he could not focus on any negative
information. The fact that the information Pilar was trying to relay was negative exacerbated the
1. Miguel’s response [to Jezebel’s concern about the budget] is:
A. Appropriate
2. The trouble spot is:
A. Miguel’s distracted
Learning Objective #2: To analyze and evaluate the components of active listening in a novel scenario.
1. What components of active listening did Miguel demonstrate (or fail to)? Refer to PPT 13-5.
Miguel failed to exhibit any of the components of active listening as indicated by the following
behaviors.
• He displays defensive/closed body language.
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2. Use the Information Processing slide (PPT 13-6) to explain Miguel’s behavior in the first meet-
ing.
3. What could Pilar have done to get Miguel’s full attention in the initial meeting?
Student’s should discuss possible alternative approaches. Examples include… Pilar may have
been more successful if she had spent a little more time congratulating Miguel and letting him
Alternatively she could have shown Miguel the memo from the client directly to get his attention.
Pilar should probably not have let Miguel leave without a commitment from him to change. His
body language indicated that he was not going to follow her suggestion.
3. Miguel is not cooperating. Pilar should:
A. Be forceful
4. The [initial] meeting has been:
A. A success
4. How did Miguel’s behavior change in the second meeting? What indicators were there that he
was listening?
5. Why is this [second] meeting different?
A. Pilar’s aggressive
6. Miguel’s behavior:
Chapter 15 - Communicating
A. Remains poor
5. What communication network (PPT 13-10) was present in this scenario? Use examples from the
scenario to support your answer.
Students’ answers will vary because it is not entirely clear from the scenario. However, it would
• What is Your Communication Style Under Stress?
• Active Listening Skills Inventory
SELF-ASSESSMENT
